Daniel 2.33-The Legs Of The Statue Were Of Iron And Its Feet Were A Mixture Of Iron And Clay
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday April 4, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:33-The Legs Of The Statue Were Of Iron And Its Feet Were A Mixture Of Iron And Clay
Lesson # 57
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:31.
Daniel’s description of the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream appears in Daniel 2:31-35, which consisted of two objects, an image of a man and a stone cut without hands out of the side of a mountain indicating that it was not human in origin.
In verse 31, Daniel tells the king that he was in a trance like state staring at a single immense statue, one of impressive size, extraordinarily bright facing toward him and directly in front of him and was intimidating to the king.
Daniel 2:31 “You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.” (NASB95)
In Daniel 2:32, Daniel tells the king that the head of the statue was composed of pure gold, its chest and arms were composed of silver and its belly and thighs were composed of bronze.
Daniel 2:32 “The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze.” (NASB95)
The gold head of this statue represents Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon according to Daniel 2:36-38.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the head of gold of the statue indicates that the character of authority and rule of the Babylonian empire was superior to the second, third and fourth kingdoms.
However, its power or strength was inferior to these three.
The silver arms and legs of the statue represent the Media-Persian Empire according to Daniel 2:36-45 and human history.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the silver arms and legs of the statue indicates that the character of authority and rule of the Media-Persian Empire was superior to the Greece and Rome and inferior to only Babylon.
However, its power or strength was superior to Babylon but inferior to Greece and Rome.
The bronze belly and thighs of the statue represent Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire according to Daniel 2:36-45 and human history.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the bronze belly and thighs of the statue indicate that the character of authority and rule of Alexander’s Greece was inferior to Media-Persia and Babylon and yet superior to Rome.
However, its power or strength was superior to Media-Persia and Babylon and inferior only to Rome.
In Daniel 2:33, Daniel tells the king that the statue had legs of iron and its feet were composed of a mixture of iron and clay.
Daniel 2:33 “Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.” (NASB95)
“Its legs of iron” is composed of the dual construct form of the noun šāq (שָׁק) (shawk), “legs” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “its” and then we have the particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “of” which is followed by the masculine singular noun pǎr∙zěl (פַּרְזֶל) (par-zel´), “iron.”
The noun šāq means “legs” referring to the lower leg, i.e. the part of the leg below the kneecap and above the ankle, which indicates that the statue was human in form.
Daniel 2:36-45 and human history indicates this part of the body of the statue represents the fourth kingdom which will follow the third kingdom, which was Alexander the Great’s Greece and this fourth kingdom is the Roman Empire.
The noun pǎr∙zěl means “iron,” which is a metal substance that appears throughout the Old Testament but is seldom found in the New Testament and is used to describe the Roman Empire.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the iron lower legs of the statue indicate that the character of the authority and rule of Rome was inferior to Alexander’s Greece, Media-Persia and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.
However, its power or strength was superior to these three.
“Its feet partly of iron and partly of clay” is composed of the masculine plural construct form of the noun reḡǎl (רְגַל) (reg-al´), “feet,” which is modified by the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix hû(ʾ) (הוּא) (who), “its” and then we have the preposition min (מִן) (min), “partly” which is followed by the third person feminine singular pronomial suffix -henā(h) (־הְנָה) (hane-naw), which is not translated and followed by the particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “of” which is followed by the masculine singular noun pǎr∙zěl (פַּרְזֶל) (par-zel´), “iron” and then we have the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), “and” which is followed by the preposition min (מִן) (min), “partly” which is followed by the third person feminine singular pronomial suffix -henā(h) (־הְנָה) (hane-naw), which is not translated and followed by the particle dî (דִּי) (dee), “of” which is followed by the masculine singular noun ḥǎsǎp̄ (חֲסַף) (khas-af´), “clay.”
The noun reḡǎl means “feet” and indicates that the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream was human in form.
Unlike the head, chest, arms, belly, thighs and lower legs of the statue, the feet of the statue do not represent any past empire in human history.
The third person feminine singular pronomial suffix -henā(h) means “them” referring to the feet of the statue and it is the object of preposition min, which means “part” since it functions as a marker of the relation of a part to the whole indicating that part of the feet were composed of iron.
As was the case the first time the word appeared, the noun pǎr∙zěl means “iron.”
However, it is used to describe the Revived Form of the Roman Empire, which is represented by the feet of the statue.
The iron describes this yet future empire as possessing the same character of authority and rule of the Roman Empire, depicted by the lower legs on the statue.
Also, the iron describes this yet future empire as possessing some of the power or strength of the Roman Empire.
Once again, the third person feminine singular pronomial suffix -henā(h) means “them” referring to the feet of the statue and it is again the object of preposition min, which means “part” since it functions as a marker of the relation of a part to the whole indicating that part of the feet were composed of clay.
The noun ḥǎsǎp̄ means “clay” and specifically wet clay that potter’s used to make vessels as indicated by Daniel’s use of the noun ṭîn in Daniel 2:41, which means “wet clay.”
Also, the clay describes this yet future empire as not possessing some of the power or strength of the Roman Empire.
Daniel 2:33 completes the description of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream and God let Daniel see in a vision during the night.
The description of the statue in Daniel 2:31-35 indicates that the image was in human form.
The head, chest, arms, belly, thighs, lower legs and feet of the statue represent Gentile world empires, which is indicated by several factors.
First of all, Daniel 2:36-38 makes clear that Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon is represented by the gold head of the statue.
Daniel 2:39-45 also makes clear that the chest, arms, belly, thighs, legs and feet of the statue are all kingdoms which will arise after Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.
Furthermore, the fact that Daniel progressed from the top to the bottom of the image represented the passage of time, thus the upper parts portrayed earlier time and the lower parts represented later time.
Therefore, the silver chest and arms of the statue represent the Media-Persian Empire, which conquered the Babylonian empire.
The bronze belly and thighs of the statue represent Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire, which immediately followed Media-Persia according to history.
The legs of iron refer to the Roman Empire since it immediately followed Alexander’s Greek Empire.
Since the metals of the statue decrease in value but increase in strength, the iron lower legs of the statue indicate that the character of the authority and rule of Rome was inferior to Alexander’s Greece, Media-Persia and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon but its power or strength was superior to these three.
The feet of the statue represent an empire, which has not yet appeared on the pages of history.
The Scriptures indicate that it will be an empire, which is connected to the Roman Empire but inferior in character of authority and rule as well as power or strength.
In fact, the Scriptures teach that it will be a Revived Form of the Roman Empire, which will be composed of a ten-nation confederacy which can be described as a United States of Europe and this is indicated by several factors.
First of all, the feet of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw were composed of a mixture of iron and clay.
The iron in the feet indicates that the empire represented by the feet is related to the lower legs of the statue, which we noted were composed of iron, which represented the Roman Empire.
Also, Daniel does not say that the feet represent a fifth empire, which further indicates that the feet represent an empire which is connected to the Roman Empire.
The ten horns mentioned in Daniel 7:24 were ten kingdoms, out of which one horn will arise who will destroy three of the other kingdoms and lead the other seven and persecute believers in Jesus Christ.
Daniel 7:26 says that this one horn called the “little horn” will be destroyed by God.
Daniel 2:44-45 teaches that this ten nation confederation depicted as ten toes of the feet of the statue will be destroyed by the Second Advent of Christ, which is depicted as a stone cut of the mountain without hands.
Daniel 9:26 indicates that this little horn will be a Roman dictator as indicated by the phrase “the people of the prince who is to come.”
“The people” were the Romans who destroyed the temple forty years after the death of Christ.
“The prince” refers to the little horn, i.e. the antichrist indicating that the antichrist will be a Roman.
This verse teaches that he will come to power after 483 prophetic years, which ended with the death of Christ on the cross.
Daniel 9:27 says that he will make a seven-year treaty with the leaders of Israel, which will begin the final seven prophetic years called the seventieth week.
During the middle of this seventieth week after three and a half years, he will break the treaty and stop the sacrifices in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and declare himself God.
Nothing in history corresponds to the events described during this seventieth week. The Second Advent of Christ has yet to take place.
Therefore, a comparison of Daniel 2:44-45 with Daniel 7:24 and 26 as well as Daniel 9:26-27 and Revelation 13 indicates that in the future, the little horn, i.e. the antichrist will be the head of a ten-nation confederacy since he will be a Roman ruling over other nations which are close in proximity to him.
Just as toes on a person’s feet are right beside each other so this ten-nation confederacy will be geographically beside each other.
Some commentators have attempted to find a ten-toe state of the statue in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D.
However, the facts of history do not fulfill the ten toes of the statue.
The fact that the feet are composed of a mixture of iron and clay indicates that the character of the authority and rule of the Revived Form of the Roman Empire is inferior to Babylon, Media-Persia, Alexander’s Greece and Rome since the metals of the statue decrease in value.
The iron and clay of this statue is the least valuable of all the metals that compose the statue.
We also noted that the metals of this statue increase in power or strength.
This indicates that the power or strength of the fourth kingdom is greater than the first three, and the third greater than the first two but inferior to the fourth, the second greater than the first but inferior to the third and fourth and the first inferior to the second, third and fourth kingdoms.
However, the feet of the image are composed of iron and clay with the former of course very hard and the latter was wet and would be very fragile.
This would indicate that the power of this yet future Revived Form of the Roman Empire under antichrist will possess some of the strength and power of the Roman Empire but will be very fragile.
Therefore, the strong yet fragile composition of the feet of the statue indicates that the power and strength of the Revived Form of the Roman Empire is inferior to Rome as well as Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, Media-Persia and Alexander’s Greece.